The Necessary Stage - Publications

Publications

The Necessary Stage has to date produced eight publications. Still Building (1994), published by EPB, is a compilation of three plays by the company’s Resident Playwright Haresh Sharma. Other published work by Haresh include This Chord and Others (1999) – a compilation of six plays published by Minerva, and Off Centre (2000), published by Ethos Books. The Necessary Stage also published PIE to Spoilt (2002), a maiden collection of plays by former Company Playwright Chong Tze Chien, who is now the Company Director of another theatre company in Singapore called The Finger Players. In 1997, the company published 9 Lives – 10 Years of Singapore Theatre, a landmark book and the first of its kind featuring essays on Singapore theatre, commissioned by The Necessary Stage. 2000 saw the company publish a report, Development Through Drama: Towards Providing A Holistic Education for Singapore Schools, with support from the National Arts Council, documenting its pilot developmental drama programme conducted during curriculum time. Ask Not: The Necessary Stage In Singapore Theatre, a collection of essays on examining the social, political, economic and artistic aspects of theatre-making in Singapore from the perspective of The Necessary Stage, was published by Times Editions in 2004. Recently, Off Centre has been selected by the Ministry of Education in Singapore as a literature text for the GCE 'O' and ‘N’ levels syllabi, and has been republished by the company.

In August 2007, a new volume of Interlogue: Studies in Singapore Literature, was published with a focus on the works of Haresh Sharma. Interlogue is a series published by Ethos Books and edited by A/P Kirpal Singh that aims to bring critical focus on the works of Singapore writers in English. Previous editions of the series included one each on fiction, poetry, drama and interviews with local writers, as well as one dedicated volume on Singapore playwright Robert Yeo.

The publication, written by Prof David Birch and edited by A/P Kirpal Singh, was an extensive investigation into Sharma's development as a writer; the themes and issues he grapples with; as well as his vision and practice of theatre within and outside his work at The Necessary Stage. While Interlogue itself was not published by The Necessary Stage, the company assisted with the provision of archival material for Prof Birch's research.

In 2010, The Necessary Stage published a new anthology of Haresh's plays entitled "Trilogy", including the scripts and production notes of our three award-winning words, Fundamentally Happy, Good People and Gemuk Girls. Most recently in 2011, a collection of early short plays by Haresh Sharma entitled Shorts I was published by The Necessary Stage. The script of Those Who Can't, Teach, which was restaged as part of the 2010 Singapore Arts Festival, has also been published in June by Epigram Books.